Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 24
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
The Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) won't cause any material damage to Turkey, the Turkish Takvim newspaper said Oct. 24 with reference to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey Ali Riza Alaboyun.
The minister said that information spread earlier by a number of Turkish media on the fact that Turkey would allegedly pay Azerbaijan $10 billion for transporting its gas through TANAP is untrue.
"TANAP is of strategic nature for Turkey, and Ankara appreciates this project," he said.
Alaboyun went on to add that Turkey buys Azerbaijani gas at a lower price than the Iranian and Russian one.
Earlier, a number of Turkish and foreign media reported that Turkey would pay Azerbaijan $10 billion for the transportation of its gas through TANAP.
TANAP project envisages transportation of gas of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field from Georgian-Turkish border to the western borders of Turkey. The project's total cost is estimated at $10 billion.
The initial capacity of TANAP pipeline is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas will be delivered to Turkey and the remaining volume will be supplied to Europe.
Turkey will get gas in 2018 and after completing the construction of Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), it will be delivered to Europe in early 2020.
BP with 12 percent became one of the shareholders of the pipeline in accordance with the agreement signed with the TANAP consortium in April.
Currently, the shareholders of TANAP are: the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) - 58 percent, Botas - 30 percent and BP - 12 percent.
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